KCMN Manufacturing SWOT Summit: Manufacturing Excellence Sessions

Speaker: Nic Lydon, Director of Continuous Improvement; Kansas Manufacturing Solutions The main purpose of value stream maps is to identify and reduce “waste” in the value stream. They also identify line imbalances, bottleneck locations, information flow issues, and lead time problems. ---Value Stream maps are not just for manufacturing. They can be used in offices, and service industries as well. --Value stream maps are a core tool for developing plans for future improvements and should be redone every year. They help to visualize the value-added and non-value-added stages in the process. --You don’t need fancy programs to develop a value stream map. As the Director of Continuous Improvement, Nic Lydon is responsible for developing and delivering Continuous Improvement programs for clients throughout the great state of Kansas. He has a decade worth of Continuous Improvement consulting experience working with small and medium size business, up to Fortune 100 companies throughout the United States. Over the last decade he has worked in numerous manufacturing environments including defense, packaging goods, equipment manufacturers, meat processing, and other food processing facilities. He has experience working in all aspects of a supply chain from purchasing, material handling, process improvements, inventory management, distribution, and production planning just to name a few. He also has experience helping clients build robust maintenance programs using Total Production Maintenance and quality programs using Total Quality Management. Nic holds a bachelor’s degree in Marketing and an M.B.A. from Northwest Missouri State University. He has certifications as a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, Change Management Specialist, Kaizen Facilitator, Total Productive Maintenance and Continuous Improvement Manager.

Speaker: Ben Troja, National Standards Manager; Rehrig Pacific Company Key Takeaways: --Getting 'The Buy In' and Finding Early Adapters --Integrating Operations --Empowerment Through Education About Ben: Ben Troja is the Quality Manager at Rehrig Pacific Company in De Soto, KS and 12 year KCMN Advisory Board member. Ben draws from his experiences supporting manufacturing operations in various supervisory, managerial, and administrative roles throughout his career. As a NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School) alumni, Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, and former certified ISO 2001:2015 Lead Auditor, Ben utilizes his experience and skills in Leadership, Lean Manufacturing, Process Improvement, and Quality Assurance to continuously improve himself and the people and processes around him. Ben will share insights he has gained to show how a commonly overlooked Quality Control process can become the catalyst to transform the culture of your plant and organization.

Speaker: Kory Johnson, Vice President of Human Resources; Labconco Corporation Key Takeaways: --Recognizing the difference between when internal succession planning is needed vs. training and development --How succession planning differs depending on the organization --Steps to successful internal succession planning About Kory: Kory has over 30 years experience in HR Roles in various industries, the last 10 with manufacturer, Labconco Corporation. She has managed all facets of the Human Resources arena including, corporate culture, mission, vision and values, staffing, compensation, benefits, DI&E, training and development, budget, labor relations issues and negotiations. She has seen many leadership transitions in her career and brings this experience to the SWOT Summit to help you navigate internal succession planning.

Brian Georgie, Plant Manager; Schier Products Not all Continuous Improvement journeys begin the same way. Learn how Schier Products identified the need for CI in their organization and focused on doing more by offering less. Hear how they made the transition from cell-based work to one piece flow. About Brian: Brian has over 16 years experience with several area manufacturers. His career has included roles as Production Manager, Plant Manager and Vice President.

Speakers: Wayne Kelly, Automation Engineer, KG Moats and Mike Gonnerman, VP Global Operations, Iron Mountain/ITRenew Key Takeaways: • Physical Automation and/or Data Automation • What problem are you trying to solve? • Real examples from an automation expert.

Speaker: Teddy Dixon, Director, Training and Development; Custom Truck One Source

Speaker, Angie Martin, Continuous Improvement Manager; Dot's Pretzels

Speaker: Bert Benton, COO; SOR Controls Key Takeaways: --Annual Improvement Priorities are the top priority change initiatives resulting from the annual Strategy Deployment Process --Your business strategy is only as good as your ability to effectively manage and execute these change initiatives, structured as Breakthrough Kaizen. --This session will provide overview on the structure, management process and techniques used to effectively manage Annual Improvement Priorities and other Breakthrough Kaizen. Bert Benton is currently Chief Operating Officer for SOR Controls Group and is an adjunct professor with Johnson County Community College. Prior to his current position he was CEO for Kustom Signals and prior to that he held various operational leadership roles with Thales, Honeywell, and L3Harris Corporation. In addition Bert is a member of the advisory board for the Kansas City Manufactures Network. He holds a MSIE and BISYE from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Speaker: Stephanie Bursek, Director of Human Resources; TrippNT Key Takeaways: --One of the foundations for our unique culture is Lean --It starts at the top (which is really the bottom) --Stephanie will share TrippNT's why, five core values and defined behaviors to help them live their values --Discover other unique details About Stephanie: Stephanie Bursek, SPHR, has been in Human Resources for over 15 years. While working as an HR Communication & Change Consultant in Seattle, she was able to observe the best (and worst) practices of companies like Starbucks, Amazon & Microsoft. Stephanie earned her SPHR in 2008 and vowed to use the best she’d learned (along with her own creativity) as a practitioner. As Director of Human Resources at TrippNT, a Kansas City manufacturer, she has been given the autonomy and support to help build a very unique culture for a growing company.